The present invention relates to an improved packaging arrangement, particularly for the packaging and shipment of webbing rolls wound on tubular cores and vertically stacked for intimate contact in a close-packed arrangement.
Problems with the storage and transportation of webbing materials roll-wound on tubular cores are common and prevalent in various industries, such as those involving paper products, yarn and threads, and cellophane and/or stretch film wrapping. These materials are both stored and shipped in multi-roll packaging arrangements or containers, which provide both a shipping carton and a protective structure to minimize damage to roll-wound material. Some of these protective transport arrangements provide the tubular core and webbing roll in a horizontal plane with the webbing material cradled and secured between packing bars and supported by extending tubular core ends in a cradle or yoke. Alternatively, the webbing roll may rest in the cradle or yoke on the roll ends. These cradles secure and nest the webbing rolls in appropriate slots, and maintain such rolls in a fixed position during storage and shipment. However, the rolls are known to shift slightly from movement during handling and vehicle transport, which movement may cause contact with external objects, resulting in surface damage to the webbing material. The webbing material surface is the most sensitive part of the web roll, as it is vulnerable to marring and abuse, which would make the webbing material an unacceptable product.
As noted above, common arrangements for the stacking, storage and transport of web reels or rolls provide the tubular core and web roll either vertically or horizontally in a cradle or yoke. A webbing roll-horizontal arrangement for storage and shipment is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,9l4 to Blatt. A webbing roll is positioned in a container or box arrangement having an open top with slotted ends to receive extended ends of a webbing roll tubular core. The cradle supports have hemispherical seats to receive the extending part of the tubular core. Cradle supports at both ends of the tubular core accommodate the webbing material between the supports and within the box structure. The box sections, as shown in the Figures of this patent, include windows alignable with the tubular cores and the box top is sealed with a mating lid. The boxed material or goods are removable by the insertion of a bar along or through the hollow interior of the tubular core.
A similar web-protective structure is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,195,732 to Bell. In this patent, a bar with semicircular indentations is disclosed for receiving webbing rolls, which bar is flexible to permit limited movement of the rolls in the indentations. The webbing rolls or webbing material rests in the indentations at approximately the web roll ends, and thus is in constant communication with the bar. Multi-tiered arrangements of webbing materials are typically stacked in layers on pallets, and have multiple supporting and spacing members, each with a plurality of indentations or notches for the nesting rolls. In this arrangement, multiple-stacked rolls provide a load on the below-nested rolls of a multi-tiered package. The bar thickness is adequate to separate the webbing material and protect each webbing roll from intimate contact with other webbing rolls in the stacked pallet arrangement.
Webbing rolls may be provided on tubular cores without extended ends, but tube extensions may be inserted in the cores, which tube extensions extend to rest on a platen or other structure and support the webbing material between tube extensions and nesting platens. There are several variations of the tube and cradle arrangement for cradling and supporting the tubes and webbing rolls. The horizontal stacking arrangements are most prevalent in the industry, and minimize movement of the packaging. However, either vertical or horizontal stacking of the webbing requires packaging to secure and hold the roll for storage or transport, while insulating or protecting the web rolls from contact, abuse, marring or other physical damage of the webbing material surface and body.
A vertically-stacked web packaging arrangement has been considered as a desirable alternative to horizontal stacking of webbing materials. In this arrangement, it is considered that the probability of damage to the rolls will be minimized, while reducing the cost of the packaging arrangement, as the webbing rolls may provide support for the package structure. However, an inherent problem with vertically stacked rolls has been packaging instability because of the shifting of an elongated roll on a smaller or narrower base, that is the end of the roll. Unlike the horizontal packaging systems, prior art vertical packaging systems have been relatively intolerant to forces applied transversely to the rolls. Consequently, various alternative stacking plans have been considered to overcome shifting in vertical stack packaging. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,516,677 to Rowland et al., a vertical stacking arrangement for webbing rolls, particularly for use with yarn packages having tubular cores, utilizes a molded pallet of plastic material, such as high density polyethylene HPED, having a repeating pattern of nubs and depressions. The nubs are operable to receive an extending end of a tubular core. An overlying yarn spool wound about a tubular core fits into a depression on the top surface. The underside or bottom surface of the pallet is provided with a mating depression and a cone end to receive the tube end of the upper surface of the underlying or lower yarn spool. This stacking arrangement provides the spools in vertical alignment along the tube cores in the depressions, and tube nubs of the stacked spools of yarn. The yarn spools are held relatively immobile in a tiered and vertically stacked arrangement. A number of layers of spools may be provided, and slots in the sidewalls of the pallets accommodate a binding means, such as a strap, to lash the several stacked pallets together, to avoid shifting of the stacked spools, and to provide a secure package. These pallets, however, are relatively expensive and if they are utilized repeatedly may require storage and special handling.
It has been found that in the vertical stacking of the various webbing rolls, it is desirable to pack the webbing rolls in proximity to each other with a line of surface contact, and thereafter to lash the stacked arrangement to its lower, or support platform or frame. This arrangement maintains the rolls in intimate contact during transport and storage, minimizes shifting of vertically-stacked rolls by utilizing the roll sidewalls as the contact surface, and thus minimizes marring and marking of the webbing roll surface.